There is a crisis on the border, but it’s not in the surge

1of4Migrants from Honduras are taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents near Granjeno, Texas, Feb. 1, 2019. On Tuesday, the agency is expected to announce a significant expansion of the health care services it provides to migrants. (Tamir Kalifa/The New York Times)Photo: TAMIR KALIFA, STR / NYT

2of4Mayte Medina, an 18-year-old from Honduras, walks with her baby, Victoria, as she and others are escorted toward U.S. Border Patrol agents near Granjeno, Texas, after they illegally crossed from Mexico and turned themselves in, Feb. 1, 2019. On Tuesday, the agency is expected to announce a significant expansion of the health care services it provides to migrants. (Tamir Kalifa/The New York Times)Photo: TAMIR KALIFA, STR / NYT

3of4A boy from Honduras with hydrocephalus watches as fellow asylum-seeking migrants from Central America are taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents near Granjeno, Texas, Feb. 1, 2019. On Tuesday, the agency is expected to announce a significant expansion of the health care services it provides to migrants. (Tamir Kalifa/The New York Times)Photo: TAMIR KALIFA, STR / NYT

4of4Migrants from Central America turn themselves in to Border Patrol agents in Penitas, Texas, Feb. 1, 2019. More than 76,000 migrants crossed the border without authorization in February, more than double the levels from the same period last year and approaching the largest numbers seen in any February in the last 12 years. (Tamir Kalifa/The New York Times)Photo: TAMIR KALIFA, STR / NYT

The spike in illegal immigration reported this week is, at least in part, the result of keeping asylum seekers at bay in Mexican border cities in what critics argue is an unexamined Trump administration policy that didn’t go through the normal administrative hoops.

It’s also not working, though some asylum seekers apparently have decided to turn back, while others have opted to stay in Mexico.

Statistics released Tuesday on illegal crossings in February, called all-time highs, didn’t surprise humanitarian aid leaders like Antonio Fernandez, CEO and president of Catholic Charities of San Antonio.

They expected a surge since a new test protocol was established at some port of entry to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico for up to 45 days. “We knew it was going to backfire,” Fernandez said.

While CBP officials characterized the border as at “a breaking point,” the reality is illegal immigration is still down overall. It has been low for a long time in comparison with 2000, when a high of 1.6 million illegal entrants were apprehended. Last year, it was 396,600.

February’s record of 76,103 apprehensions was the highest total since 2007 for the shortest month of the year; and it occurred the same month President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the border. In 2000, monthly crossings hit 200,000.

What is striking is the number of Central American families being apprehended, fathers or mothers with children and infants. Their numbers reached a record level for the fourth time in five months, amounting to about 43,000 families and children in February.

In the El Paso and Big Bend sectors alone, families increased by 266 percent from July to December of last year, according to news reports.

The administration’s border policies have been aggressive. Some would argue they’re just as draconian as those under President Barack Obama, famously dubbed “deporter in chief.” Obama’s aim was to get Republicans to the table to discuss comprehensive immigration reform, which never happened.

Trump’s end game, on the other hand, has been a border wall. He declared a national emergency to tap defense funds and circumvent Congress, which had refused the money he’d requested for the wall. The U.S. House passed a resolution opposing the emergency declaration as unconstitutional, and it may get similar treatment in the Senate next week. At least sixteen states and various civil rights groups have sued to block the declaration.

Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a bipartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., calls the latest figures significant but far below those of 12 years ago.

Here’s the other reality: Asylum seekers are legally asserting their rights under long-established U.S. and international law. Selee said some would argue they’re illegally being held at bay in Mexico, whose border cities pose security concerns for them. Selee says the federal law is so badly written, it’s hard to tell.

For Central American families seeking asylum, getting to the United States under the administration’s new “metered” system, the journey will be excruciating slow.

In Brownsville, only 10 asylum applicants are allowed in each day; two daily in Laredo; and a couple of dozen in El Paso. Then they’ll face backlogged immigration courts that have received little relief and were set back farther by the recent federal government shutdown.

The administration will have to adjust quickly as medical and humanitarian needs mount on the border. Selee believes the Trump administration should adjust the asylum system to allow for more adjudication of cases.

Mexico could be helpful, too, Selee said. It wants a “labor mobility program,” in which it can issue Central Americans temporary visas allowing them to work in Mexico and then return to their countries. Longer term, Mexico can work on its own asylum system, he said.

Next week Fernandez of Catholic Charities will lead a contingent of San Antonio volunteers to take aid to its sister agency in Laredo. They’ll help out simply because migrants haven’t been deterred by everything the administration has put before them — harsh processing facilities that are ice cold; detention centers that are akin to prisons; family separations.

As cold as it is now, the summer will be worse as migrants get more desperate, humanitarian aid workers more strained, border agents more frustrated while lawsuits mount as protesters take to the streets.

Elaine Ayala is a Metro columnist for the San Antonio Express-News. A newspaper journalist for almost 40 years, she has held a variety of journalism jobs, including news reporter, features editor, blogger and editorial page editor. She has worked for six metropolitan dailies — the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, the Arizona Daily Star, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, the Austin American-Statesman, El Paso Times and the Express-News, where she has worked since 1996.

Her Metro column appears on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays on Page 2 of the Express-News. She covers San Antonio and Bexar County with special focus on communities of color, demographic change, Latino politics, migration, education and arts and culture.

The San Antonio native graduated from Memorial High School on the city’s West Side and the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English. She is also a graduate of the Maynard Institute’s Editing Program, in which she also taught.

She has been involved in several journalism organizations throughout her career, most focused on increasing the number of minorities and women in U.S. newsrooms and fundraising for scholarships for students pursuing careers in the news media

She’s past president of the San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists (SAAHJ), the Austin Area Association of Hispanic Journalists and the El Paso Association of Hispanic Journalists. She has served on the board of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and has been a member of two other journalism groups, formerly known as the National Conference of Editorial Writers and American Association of Sunday and Features Editors.

Ayala is the recipient of several awards, including the Henry Guerra Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Journalism, awarded by SAAHJ; the Phillip True Award for Reporter of the Year, given by her peers at the Express-News; the inaugural Mission Heritage Award by the American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions; the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s inaugural Community Voice Award; a role-model award from the Martinez Street Women’s Center; the IMAGE of San Antonio Award given to women leaders and mentors; and the Governor’s Yellow Rose of Texas Award.

She has been inducted into the Edgewood Independent School District’s Hall of Fame, the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame and, most recently, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Hall of Fame.